Can-opener.



Patented Oct. 3|, |899. G. ROBINSON.

C A N 0 P E N E R.

(Application med Feb. 1a, 1599.)

(No Model.)

/N VENTO/9 A TTOHNEYS.

W/ TNE SSES GEORGE ROBINSON, OF PAHIATUA, VELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO THOMAS BROWN, OF SAME PLACE.

CAN-OPENER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 635,810, dated October 31, 1899. Application filed February 18, 1899. Serial No. 706,076. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern,-

Be it known that I, GEORGE ROBINSON, of Pahiatua, Wellington, New Zealand, have invented a new and Improved'Can-Opener, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

One object of my invention is to provide an opening device capable of application to cans of different shapes and to so construct the opener that it may be employed to hermetically connect the body with the top or cover of the can.

Another object of the invention is to provide a can-opener made of one or more strands of wire and so formed that when an exposed' end of the opener is grasped and drawn upon the opener will be gradually detached from the body and cover of the can to which it is applied and the two parts be completely and cleanly separated.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the gures.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a can, illustrating the improved opener applied thereto.

.Fig 2 is a vertical section through the body and top of the can and a transverse section through the opener connecting the two said parts. Fig. 3 is a plan view of aV slightlymodified form of opener. Fig. 4 is a plan view of a further-modied form of the opener, and Fig. 5 is an end View of the opener.

A represents the body of the can, and B its top or cover. The body is provided at the end to be covered with a preferablyinwardlyextending marginal liange 10, and the cover is provided at its lower edge with a preferably inwardly-extending :liange 11, the inclinations of the ilanges of the body and the cover being in opposite directions, as is illustrated in Fig. 2. The Opener O is adapted to be located in the space between the flanges of the cover and the body or between the opposing edges of the two parts.

The Opener is constructed of wire, one or 5o more strands being employed, the strands being placed ordinarily abreast, as shown in Figs. l, 3, and 4, and the wire or wires are bent upon a core or mandrel-to form a coil 12. One or both ends of the wire strand or strands thus formed in a coil is carried outward from said coil to form a shank 13, while at the Outerend of the shank a loop 14 is provided.

lf the can be of small diameter, an opener 6o O, having a single coil, is provided, and the ends of said coil are connected, the body of the coil being hermetically soldered to the opposing edges of the cover and bodyof the can, thus connecting said two parts. The shank and loop of the coil, however, are left free and the loop may be bent down upon the body of the can or over upon the top of the can. When the can is to be opened, it is simply necessary to draw outward upon the loop 14, whereupon the wire strand or strands connected with the loop will uncoil or straighten out, leaving exposed the opposing edges of the cover and body and permitting the former to be completely and cleanly removed from the latter.

If the can be of medium diameter, it may be necessary to construct the opener C in two coils lfand 16, as shown in Fig. 3, each coil being provided with an independent loop, and 8o if the can be very large the opener C2 may consist of four coils 17, 18,19, and 20, as illustrated in Fig. 4, each coil being also provided with an independent loop, so that one coil after the other may beremoved independently.

The object of constructing the opener in numerous coils is to obviate the handling of a great length of wire when the opener is to be separated from the can and top.

Having thus described my invention, I 9o claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. A'vessel-opener consisting in a pliable coil sealed hermetically between two parts of the vessel to join the same and capable of being uncoiled to break the seal and detach the cover. f y i v 2. The combination of a vessel having an inwardly projected ange at its mouth, a cover having an inwardly-projected flan ge at its lowel1 edge and adapted to lie above the flange of the vessel, and a pliable eoil bearing between the flanges and seal hermetieally to each, and capable of being uneoiled o break the seal and detach the cover.

lVellington, New Zealand, January 17, 1898.

GEORGE ROBINSON.

Titnessesz K. D. DUNCAN, J. E. DUNCAN. 

